sweet and tasty

epik high concert in nyc May 23, 2009

So, I had two tickets to the Epik High. I got to the venue, Fillmore Theatre, at Irving Plaza? Place? at around 3:30 so I could make sure it was the right place. And there was already a line of people that stretched down and around the corner. I got in line and waited until my friend got there at around 5:30. By then, Epik High had gotten there and went in, I think, because people started screaming and everyone stood up. Of course, the doors opened late and it wasn’t until 8:00 did the concert start.
Before the concert started, though, there were free glow sticks from Verizon and a whole bunch of stuff for sale for Kero One, Far East Mocement and Epik High. T shirts were $25, cell phone charms were $15, buttons were $3. There were towels and albums and other stuff, but I don’t remember the prices. I wanted a t shirt, but it was a little too much for my wallet. My friend bought a button and a phone charm, though. Man, $15 for a phone charm. It was really nice, though.
Since I was one of the people who was in the middle of the longass line, I would have been stuck in the middle of the standing crowd. There was the general admission standing audience on the floor, and the VIPs were upstairs and one half had chairs and tables and the other half was standing also, but they had a way better view from the railings. People were pushing and the bass was so intense I was already getting a headache, you could really feel the bass, I thought it was making my heart beat in time with it, my chest vibrated so much.
So, since it was already starting to stink and it was way too hot and humid for me, I went to the bar and got a cup of ice. I stayed there for the whole concert. It was a damn good spot. Because I was far away, I didn’t have to crane my neck to look at the stage, and there was a huge mirror behind the bar with a flat screen also, so basically, I had it good. I could see the performances rather well with thte mirror and the closeups on the screen, plus the bar was the only place that was cool, if you took 5 steps away from the bar, a wave of heat and the scent of sweat just hit you hard.
The MC started with ‘Make some noise!’ and all that. I totally never caught his name, which is sad because he said it at least three times before Epik High came out. Well, he introduced Kero One, first.
Kero One had a bad mic, and the bass was still way intense, because I just couldn’t hear his words. He had a nice female vocalist, though. I could hear half of what she was singing.
Then, when Kero One finished, a dude in a space suit came out and then the rest of Far East Movement came out. They did a whole thing with time travel and music is dead in 3008 and NYC is the only place to find enough energy to keep music alive. It was corny, but cute, and the whole space suits thing was just funny. And they threw shoes and towels and water at the crowd.
Then Epik High came out. DJ Tukutz came out to his turnstile first. Tablo and Mithra and MYK came out, too. MYK beatboxed and Tablo said it was the hottest room he’d ever been in. Which I think is very true. And then he asked Mithra, and Mithra kind of grunted and Tablo laughed and asked him, “What was that? That was like a bear.” And then he asked Tukutz how it was for him and Tukutz replied with, “Its cool.”
I don’t really remember everything for the first half of their show, because I only know their really popular songs. But, the second half was everything I knew. They sang One, One Love, Love, Love, Love, and then said they had to go. That was at 10:30, and you know the show’s not over, yet. Of course, the crowd chanted for an encore. And the stage stays dark while Table just chants into his mic, “Epik High, Epik High, Encore, Encore’ with everyone else.
The lights come on and out they come. They did two songs with MYK, which are in their Lost Map demo album that you get with an Epik High item purchase. Then they sang their last song: Fan. The energy during that finale was amazing. Everyone was jumping but me and the bartenders. I bounced a bit, though. I’d had a lot of water in the last three hours, I was not going to jump.
Then it was the end.